Lighting the 8th Fire: from Pre-contact to Resistance through Indigenous eyes.

The indigenous rights history we've never been taught

Wednesday March 30 2016

at the Peace Lounge - OISE-UT 7th floor - 252 Bloor St W above the St. George subway station
NOTE NEW TIME: 7 pm sharp - 9:30 pm

Doors open 6:30, please arrive early

For the third in our series on decolonization and re-indigenization, "Indigenize or Die," Unify Toronto Dialogues welcomes Nancy Stevens of KAIROS Canada. Nancy will lead us in the KAIROS Blanket Exercise, an interactive workshop which will take us through the history of colonization from an Indigenous perspective. We'll then share our experiences and insights from the exercise in a talking circle.

The Blanket Exercise is a participatory learning experience that teaches the Indigenous rights history we’re rarely taught. The Aboriginal Rights Coalition worked with Indigenous elders and teachers to develop the exercise 15 years ago. Since then it has been offered thousands of times and was completely updated in 2013. Created in response to the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples—which recommended education on Canadian-Indigenous history as one of the key steps to reconciliation--the Blanket Exercise covers over 500 years of history. During the Exercise participants take on the roles of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Standing on blankets that represent the land, they walk through pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization and resistance. By engaging participants on an emotional as well as intellectual level, the Blanket Exercise helps create conditions for effective action.

As our costs for this event are around $400 we suggest a donation of $15 (PWYC for students/unwaged). No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Those choosing free tickets may donate at the door.

Guest Facilitator: Nancy Stevens

An accomplished teacher, counsellor and organizer, mother and grandmother, Nancy’s biological roots extend to the Haudenosaunee (Mohawk) of Six Nations, Irish, English and old German nations but she was adopted as an infant to a white farm family near Guelph. After completing the Native Child & Family Worker program in Negahneewin at Confederation College, Thunder Bay and then a B.A. in Social Work through the University of Waterloo in Social Development Studies, Nancy began a counselling position at B’saanibamaadsiwin – Native Mental Health in Parry Sound, part of Muskoka-Parry Sound Community Mental Health Service, which supports seven First Nations communities and Parry Sound Indian Friendship Centre. While there, she completed an M.Ed. through OISE/University of Toronto in the Adult Education department, with an Aboriginal specialization and taught part-time at the Anishinabek Educational Institute. She is currently working on a Ph.D. through Trent University in the Indigenous Studies Department.

Guest Host: Kevin Best

Kevin Best has focused on how to create a just and sustainable society through activism, innovative business and restoring Indigenous society for over four decades. Of Haudenosaunee and Celtic descent, through adoption he self-identifies as Anishinabeg of the Martin Clan. He has worked with Indigenous people throughout Turtle Island, consulted to Greenpeace and pioneered green energy in Ontario. He is currently working on a start-up called Odenaansan (Village or “the little places where my heart is”), an integrated, culturally-based approach to restoring Minobimadzin (the good life) through sustainable food, energy, housing and water in Anishinabe communities. Passionate about decolonization and re-indigenization, he is committed to spreading understanding of these life-giving possibilities. He has recently joined Mayor Wilson as a Consulting Partner.